(Note: Our guest contributing author, Pastor Terry Cooper of Ninevah Christian Church, brought a powerful prophetic message to our Nation in Freefall Bible Conference held in June 2024. The following is an excerpt from his message. The entire message is available on our Christ in Prophecy YouTube channel.)
Terry Cooper: One of the greatest revivals in the Old Testament happened in a place called Nineveh. God uses the most unlikely circumstances to do the most incredible things. So I’m going to address a spiritual question that many do not want to tackle. Let me just start by asking a question: Is there a point of no return with God?
Can a person reach a point in their rebellion against God that He lets them go to their own destruction, abandoning them to an eternity in hell?
We’re not going to focus on opinions. Everybody’s got one of those. I believe the Bible is the only physical source of absolute truth on this earth. And so we’re going to trust the Bible to answer the question: “Is there a point of no return?”
Learn from Judah
Let’s offer a visual representation of this question. Is there a point where there are no more exits on the road that you have chosen to walk upon? No way to get off of the road you’re on? Let’s say you can’t turn around or get on another road. No more off ramps. You’ve passed the last one.
Let’s begin in the Old Testament with the nation of Judah around 600 years before Christ. Ezekiel 14:12 says,
Then this message came to me from the Lord: “Son of man, suppose the people of a country were to sin against Me, and I lifted My fist to crush them, cutting off their food supply and sending a famine to destroy both people and animals. Even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were there, their righteousness would save no one but themselves, says the Sovereign Lord.” (NLT throughout, unless noted)
We have three things in this text. First, we’re dealing with a nation, a country. “Suppose a nation were to sin against Me.” But a nation is just an assembly of people. So, this country, this nation, has sinned against God so much that God has raised His fist to crush them. He declares that He is going to destroy them. God told Ezekiel, I’m going to bring destruction upon people and animals alike.
Secondly, God reveals the power of intercessors. God brought it up to Ezekiel. “Even if Noah, Daniel, and Job…” Normally these men could ask God and God would listen. But in this case, if Noah, Daniel, and Job were to ask, He would still say no. That tells us that even if these three holy men ask God to turn back His wrath, there is a point of no return. Even with holy men interceding for the nation, there is a red line that could be crossed.
But there is a third point. Although there is a point of no return for the rest that joined in the rebellion against God, the holy men themselves would be saved.
Waves of Judgment
God gave the prophet Ezekiel specific insight about the first judgment that He was planning for Jerusalem. That judgment, which definitely had a point of no return, was cutting off the food supply and bringing a famine upon the land, the nation that would eventually destroy the people, including the animals. Even with holy men interceding in prayer, that judgment would fall (Ezekiel 14:15).
But there is more judgment to come. God increases the devastation. He says:
“Suppose I bring wild animals to invade the country, kill the people, make the land too desolate and dangerous to pass through as surely as I live, says the sovereign Lord, even if those three men, Noah, Daniel and Job, were there, they wouldn’t be able to save their own sons and daughters. They alone would be saved, but the land would be made desolate.”
There is yet another wave of tragedy to come. At first it was famine. Then wild beasts. God says:
“Or suppose I were to bring war against the land, and I sent enemy armies to destroy both people and animals, as surely as I live,” says the Sovereign Lord. “Even if those three men were there, they wouldn’t be able to save their own sons or daughters. They alone would be saved” (Ezekiel 14:17-18).
A fourth and final wave of destruction completes God’s judgment:
“Or suppose I were to pour out my fury by sending an epidemic (or, pandemic, in our modern understanding) against that country and pour out My wrath in blood on it to cut off man and beast from it. As surely as I live,” says the Sovereign Lord, “even if Noah, Daniel and Job were there, they wouldn’t be able to save their own sons or daughters. They alone would be saved by their righteousness” (Ezekiel 14:19-20).
Now this is what the sovereign Lord said to Ezekiel, revealing the impending judgment of four dreadful punishments about to fall upon Jerusalem.
This word of God to Ezekiel was real. It was not hypothetical. It was meant specifically for Jerusalem. For Judah, Jerusalem was reaching the point of no return, and God was going to bring war, famine, wild animals, and disease to destroy them. And only the holy men would be safe.
No Hope
The prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah both lived to see what happens when God reaches a point of no return. Jeremiah was also told about this same point of no return, even with holy men interceding on behalf of the nation. God even got to the point with Jeremiah that he told Jeremiah to stop praying for the nation. Jerusalem fell to the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC.
Can you imagine being Jeremiah and hearing from God, “Pray no more for these people Jeremiah. Do not weep or pray for them, and do not beg Me to help them, for I will not listen to you” (Jeremiah 7:16). They had reached a point of no return.
Since we know that there is a point of no return in God’s eyes, it is critically important that we determine what so offended God that He told His prophet to stop praying on their behalf.
What had the people and their leaders done that was so offensive to God?
Two Capital Sins
The first offense was idolatry. Throughout the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, the children gathered wood and the fathers built sacrificial fires. The women kneaded dough and made cakes to offer to the “Queen of Heaven”—the false god Jonathan Cahn refers to as the seducer (Ishtar or Astra).
But Judah’s king doomed his people to God’s wrath when he grievously offended the Lord through his actions. What did he do that was so egregious? Beside rampant idolatry, what was the sin that brought the nation of Judah to the point of no return with God?
God specifically cited the sin of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah (Jeremiah 15:4). King Manasseh built pagan altars inside the temple of the Lord and sacrificed his son to a false god.
Because of their flagrant sins of idolatry and child sacrifice—partaken in by the masses and celebrated by the leader of their nation—Judah and its capitol Jerusalem, the chosen people of the covenant, were destined to die. God said, “I will make [My people, Judah] an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem” (Jeremiah 15:4, NASB).
The people of Judah were trapped. They were on a road with no exits, no off ramps, no place to go and turn around. They had passed the point of no return.
So what about America? Has America also passed God’s point of no return? We will explore this vital question in the second part of Pastor Terry Cooper’s sermon, “The Point of No Return.”
Good insights and it is amazing the parallel to what we have going on in America today. I just wish they would have used an actual translation. The NLT is a commentary-type book. However, in this case, it did clearly bring forth the message fairly accurately. It’s just sad we don’t use the KJV any more or even the NKJV… All the old prophecy guys used to use it.